Nothing else left
by TashG
Summary: W/O Angst. Oz was injured at Angels final battle.
1. Falling like Dominoes

Title: Nothing else left  
  
Author: TashG  
  
Email: tash_faith@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: G for all (At the moment)  
  
Summary: W/O fic. Oz is injured at Angels final battle.   
  
Distribution: If you want it, ask!  
  
Disclaimer: Joss owns the BtVS characters, etc, etc.   
  
Author's Note: Set Season 6/ Summer between S5/6  
  
  
  
  
  
It amazed Willow how much this girl had not changed in appearance. She was still a looker. Apart from the crows' feet threatening to appear at the edges of her eyes, Cordelia Chase was still the same, physically anyway. The wear and tear of fighting demons and vampires, the creatures of the night, was starting to catch up on her though.   
  
If she had changed at all, it was as a person. She had grown more mature. It was true since she had arrived, just a few short hours ago, she had not made one snide remark, not even to Xander. Although that may, and most probably was because, of the horrific news she bought with her.  
  
  
It had shocked everyone. Chilled them to the core. Every fibre of their being, shaken.  
  
It had finally happened. Angel had died. That was how far Cordelia had gotten so far, in between the tears she shed.   
  
'He died a noble death' She told them. 'I've never seen anyone fight like that before.'  
It had happened in and architectural dig site, or so she had told them. Apparently the architects had come across a deep hole. So deep they didn't know where it ended. They had used various digital equipment to try and find out the depth of the hole, but it never worked, the technology always got scrambled, or had errors, or refused to work properly and spat out absurd numbers.   
  
Of course, Angel had grown curious and fearful, that it might be something more than natural. Something supernatural, otherworldly, in fact. He was right.   
  
Late one night, a curious architect had come to investigate it, while there was no one else around, to see if there were any clues to the origin of this strange hole.   
  
The next morning his corpse was found, at least 20m from the hole. And a few feet away, a tent full of assistants was found mutilated, every strip of flesh torn from the bodies.   
  
That proved it. That proved his theory. This strange phenomenon was in fact a hell mouth of sorts. Disgorging various creatures as time went by. The architectural teams mistake, was uncovering it.   
  
They had to close it.   
  
That's when it had begun. The battle. He'd predicted that as time went by, more creatures, demons and monsters alike, would come out of the hole more often.   
So he'd gathered a few 'friends' to come and help. It turned out he needed more than a few. Kate had helped; she was a police officer who had helped Angel in the past. And she, in turn, and brought a few fellow officers.  
  
She didn't tell them what it was for, just to bring lots of weapons, guns. They didn't question her. After all, she had become head police officer.   
  
So, the take down squad consisted of Angel, Gunn, Wesley, Cordelia, Kate, and 6 other police offers who had no idea what they were doing.   
It wasn't enough by far.   
  
They were outnumbered.   
  
"So, how did you get away?" Xander prodded after a few minutes of silence.  
  
"I ran. Angel told me to run, he said it was the only think any sane person could do. So I did."  
  
"So what happened?"  
  
"Well, I ran a far as I could go, as fast as I could. IT only occurred to me how long I'd been away when the sun rose. When I went back, someone had used the grenade that Gunn had gotten hold of. It looked just like a mountain had fallen down or something. I didn't know what to do, there was just bodies everywhere. I was just frozen, I couldn't move."  
  
Cordelia paused for a minute. No one pushed.   
  
"Then the police arrived. Then the ambulance. They took me down to the station. Gunn and Wesley went to Hospital; I think they found one surviving police officer. I didn't know what happened to Angel. I mean, it was daylight. He could have jus found shelter for all I knew."  
  
"After they questioned me, I went down to the hospital to see them. Gunn was conscious, Wesley wasn't. He told me...he told me he saw Angel die. He, uh, got decapitated. I saw him fight before I left, and the way he was fighting I didn't think anything had happened to him".  
  
"God." Willow murmured.  
  
"Yeah" Xander said, looking at the floor. "I always thought he'd be the one who'd live the longest".  
  
"I didn't really know him, but yeah, vampires generally do tend to live longer than humans" Anya added.   
  
"There's more" Cordelia said, turning to Willow.   
  
Willow frowned, but didn't say anything.  
  
"Oz. He was in LA and needed a place to crash for the night. He said he didn't like driving during a full moon or something, even though he had the whole non-wolf thing going. He came with us, to the site. Just before I left he ended up wolfing out. I guess he got really angry or something. I saw him in the hospital".   
  
Cordelia stared hard at Willow, and then continued.  
  
"He had to go into emergency surgery for a small lung rupture. He's got a machine breathing for him".   
  
Everyone was staring at her. 'Why is everyone staring at me?' She thought, oblivious to the tears running down her cheeks.   
  
That's when it hit her. Everyone was dying. First Buffy. No one thought she'd be the first to go, that's for sure, being the slayer and all. Then Tara, in a plane crash of all things. Giles hadn't exactly died, but he'd moved back to England. Dawn had moved in with Willow, after the campus had made some special arrangements. They didn't see much of Spike anymore. They'd all seen him patrolling alone before; they all figured it was to work out some physical tension or something.   
  
And now this. Willow stood up, and grabbed her coat off the back of her door.   
"Cordy, drive me to LA?"   
  
Cordelia looked at her for a second, the nodded. "Sure"   
  



	2. A car drive away...

It had been a long drive to LA, or so it seemed. Neither had said anything for the entire journey, which was surprising for Cordelia, who normally rambled on about fashion or otherwise. Or at least that's what Willow thought; maybe she'd gotten over that whole thing now. She decided she wasn't qualified to answer that since she hadn't really been on a car drive with her for quite a few years.   
  
It was dark when they arrived, the moon shone bright, and Willow was reminded that it was the night after the full moon last night.   
  
They went through the front entrance of the hospital, and were met by dimly lit corridors, and that odd hospitals smell that seems to be at every hospital you go to. Willow had been in hospitals far too many times for her liking, whether it be for herself, or for others.   
  
She watched as Cordelia conversed with a nurse in a clean, white uniform, before walking over to her.   
  
"They've just taken him off the respirators." She said. "The nurse said he was in a separate room on the second floor, and you can go see him as you travelled so far. Normally you wouldn't be allowed in this late, since visiting hours are over. Do you want me to show you where?"   
  
Willow nodded. She wondered for a second how Cordelia knew her way around the hospital so well, as she led her, Willow walking a few paces behind her, to Oz  
  
On the way, they passed several more nurses in uniform, but, Willow noticed, there were no doctors on duty. 'So they get higher pay AND less hours' she though, bitterly.   
They passed wards with viewing windows, and Willow went numb, as she saw the sick in beds all with the same blankets and pillows. It stung her to think that Oz was in one of those.   
  
They went up two flights of stairs, and what seemed like an endless amount of corridors. It was like the hospital had more corridors in than could be physically possible. It was like a maze.  
  
Cordelia stopped a few feet ahead, looking through a window into a room.   
  
Willow stood beside her, and looked through the glass, taking in a sharp breath.  



	3. How I loathe hospitals

The lightly frosted glass made it nearly impossible to make out any detail, but Willow knew he was in there.   
  
"I'm gonna go see Gunn and Wesley, okay?" Cordelia told her. Willow nodded, and Cordelia walked down the corridor, into a ward.   
  
Willow moved over to the door, and opened it. She was surprised to find it wasn't locked. 'That isn't very safe', she thought, as she closed it behind her.   
  
She tuned and looked at the bed. Oz was lying on his back, with what looked like an IV in his arm, connected to a morphine drip. Painkillers. His hair was slightly longer than the last time she'd saw him, but still his natural red colour. The sheets were slightly ruffled, meaning that he'd probably moved around a bit.   
  
She picked up the report sheet on the end of the bed, and tried to make sense of the doctor's scrawled handwriting.   
  
Small lung rupture to left lung. (Emergency surgery - poss. chance surgery may have failed). Broken finger - A4. Deep wound on left leg.  
IN RECOVERY.  
  
She felt a tear run down her cheek as she finished reading it, and put it back down in the holder. She sat down on the chair beside the bed, leaning on it, and looking at him.   
  
She noticed that he still had some black nail varnish on. She knew they were supposed to take that off before they went into any kind of surgery, as it was a safety hazard. 'Not really the safest hospital around, is it?'  
  
Willow watched the gentle rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. Where did it all go wrong? She took his hand, and started to chip away the nail varnish with her nail.   
"I still love you, Oz" She said quietly. She knew it was like talking to a brick wall, as he was still asleep, but hey.   
'I know it was inevitable or something, but if Veruca never came, would you still have left?' Something told her the answer was yes. It still pained her to think of Veruca.   
  
He can't die, Willow thought. There was so few of them left now - herself, Xander, Anya, Dawn, Spike. The Hell mouth was crumbling. No one went out alone at night anymore. It just wasn't safe. The death rate in Sunnydale had increased by all most 60%, since Buffy had died. Their patrols weren't really helping much, if at all. No new slayer had been called, as Giles had predicted. Another wouldn't be called until Faith died, or so they thought.   
  
Xander and Anya were wrapped up in each other, having married a few short weeks ago. Willow had no one left. She felt so lonely.   
That's why he couldn't die.  
  
  
  
  



End file.
